Earlier this week I was feisty and decided to name the SM tactic du jour: giving away random coveted electronics product via a Branded hashtag contest on Twitter.

Now, let's clear the air before you dismiss this entry as one of my anti-hashtag rants.

For any of you who may not know, I am a long-time hashtag protester. If you aren't familiar with the battle against hashtags, go here to quickly catch up. We fought the good fight, however, we lost the war. Enough of the core community latched on to hashtags and the Twitter community grew so rapidly that many knew no other way. For the growing nation of Twitter n00bs, hashtags were a way of life within the platform. Last week, twitter made hashtags legit by hotlinking them, like @ replies.

Ya can't win 'em all.

Lately, adding a Branded hashtag to a tweet is the new SM "viral" campaign. A couple of start up's (and I'm sure there's more than the 2 I'm thinking of) have launched "promotions" (and I use that term loosely) offering to give away iPhones and/or macbook Pro's to randomly selected people who hashtag a tweet with their Brand name.

This is non-strategic marketing for a number of reasons:

• This is not a contest to promote or benefit Apple/mac or affiliate programs/services, although you may think it is it, because they are giving away that company's products. Wouldn't it make more sense to give away something specific to the product or service you are offering?

• Call entry just requires the branded hashtag on any tweet. So basically, I could negatively tweet about the brand "Yo XYZ company, your service totally blows. #XYZ" and still qualify to win the prize. Or, I could tweet about something unrelated "Checking out the monkey exhibit at the zoo today. #XYZ." How does that shape or improve people's opinion of the brand using word of mouth? Not all word of mouth is positive word of mouth.
  

• I still have no idea who this company is and what they do. Why should I use them? What can they do for me other than win free electronics? What is their VALUE Proposition?
  

These things don't benefits the brand. They are the equivalent of standing in the middle of a Grand Central Station and screaming a brand name. Imagine standing standing waiting for a train and hearing someone scream "I'm waiting for a train. STARBUCKS!!!" I'd that person was crazy and immediately ignore them. If they continued doing this, I'd get annoyed and move away.

Wouldn't it make more sense to make the call to action a creative reply TO: the brand? Having them follow the Brand in order to receive a DM alerting you to winning? Requiring the tweet to say something positive about the brand and/or service? Customizing the prize to tie back to the product or service that awarded it?

It's great to play with shiny new tools and see your name echo online. However, echoing for the sake of echoing, isn't strategic. It doesn't add value. It doesn't educate people on your brand. It doesn't build loyalists. It's just a blip.

And that's why, since it's not quite spam and not bacn either, I'm calling the branded hashtag promotions/hashtag meme's, Twofu. Not quite spam or bacn. Just a flavored imitator I'll forget tomorrow.